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Sankoh questions deployment of UN peacekeepers

    ABIDJAN

    A proposal to deploy UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone has been welcomed by the country's government but not - news reports say -by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh.

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended in a report on Monday that the UN Security Council authorise the deployment of 6,000 peacekeepers to disarm and demobilise some 45,000 ex-combatants and to help implement the peace process.

    Presidential spokesman Septimus Kaikai said Sierra Leone's government was pleased with the recommendations in the report, which it viewed as a step in the right direction. The report "has put the responsibility for helping Sierra Leone bring about security on the doorstep of the international
    community", he told IRIN.

    However, Sankoh told Reuters on Tuesday that the deployment of UN
    peacekeepers would violate the peace agreement the RUF and the government signed in July in Lome to end the nine-year rebel war. "The UN proposal is not in the peace accord," Sankoh said. "We never asked the United Nations for a peacekeeping force. We talked about ECOMOG."

    Article 16 of the Lome Peace Agreement signed by Sankoh and President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah states: "A neutral peacekeeping force comprising UNOMSIL and ECOMOG shall disarm all combatants of the RUF/SL, CDF, SLA and paramilitary groups."

    "UNOMSIL shall be present in all disarmament and demobilisation locations to monitor the process and provide security guarantees to all ex-combatants," it adds.

    Article 14 of the agreement requests the Security Council "to amend the mandate of UNOMSIL to enable it to undertake the various provisions outlined in the present agreement".

    The Security Council met on Tuesday to discuss Annan's proposals, which Britain and France have publicly supported.

    In his report, Annan also appealed to Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma - leader of the junta that ruled Sierra Leone with the RUF for eight months after overthrowing Kabbah in May 1998 - to return to Freetown "without delay".

    Sankoh left Cote d'Ivoire for Monrovia on Tuesday, according to news organisations.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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